Orioles committing to a long-term deal with Pete Alonso raises concerning questions

Baltimore Orioles fans have been begging for the team to finally start spending in a meaningful way for a long time. It was a popular criticism of the Orioles when the Angelos family owned them and while the new owners made some big promises, fans were getting anxious that it would be more of the same after the 2024 offseason in which Baltimore only shopped in the clearance aisle. This offseason, however, has been a drastically different story.

There was already more excitement around the Orioles this offseason given that they struck early and traded for Taylor Ward and signed Ryan Helsley. One can have some quibbles when it comes to the specific names involved, but there was no denying that this was a much more aggressive posture from Mike Elias. When the Orioles added Pete Alonso, it was celebrated as a new era in Baltimore baseball and to an extent, that is true.

But the Orioles deciding that Alonso, a talented, but flawed player, was the one guy who could convince them to commit to a nine figure deal raises some questions about the preferences and philosophy in the front office.

Pete Alonso being the Orioles' choice as the first "worthy" long-term contract is pretty odd

To be clear, signing Alonso was more than fine. It is easily among the biggest deals in team history no matter how to define "biggest", and he solves a need for Baltimore. On top of that, Alonso is saying all of the right things at the moment and seems to be fully bought in to the Orioles and what they are trying to accomplish.

Elias is famous for avoiding long-term deals, and seems averse to paying pitchers. So it's rather odd to think that a 31-year-old slugger with an average hit tool who can only play first base or DH was worth that sort of investment. Especially when a frontline arm, or a younger, more versatile bat could've been signed instead. This is out of character for Elias, and raises questions as to how earnest this new approach is, or if this is just service to those that keep yelling about spending.

In fairness to the Orioles, not only is the offseason far from over, but they are still favored to add a top rotation arm. Still, they have reason to be wary of big deals. They are still paying Chris Davis even now and will continue to do so through 2037.

That was the last time Baltimore handed out this sort of generational wealth. Perhaps we should be cutting Baltimore a bit of slack and see if they are easing into operating like a real baseball team instead of trying to compete with one arm tied behind their back.